A quick clatter of heels on a hardwood floor, and Eunice was with them, darkly picturesque in a yellow negligée. "You'll have to pahdon me, Jock," she said as she entered, "I was just goin' to bed, and I couldn't stop to dress propahly when I knew you were heah. How you, honey? It's mighty good to see you."
Conventional words; but Eunice had a way of saying them that was not conventional at all. She also had a way of shaking hands and smiling that made Jock feel, curiously enough, as though he were being embraced before witnesses.
She seated herself with conscious grace in a chair that had its back to the light. "Tell us everythin'," she commanded. "Did you have a mahvelous vacation? We missed you most awfully, didn't we, Brad?"
"We sure did."
"I reckon you fell in love—oh, many times?"
"Well, not too many," Jock retorted lightly. "I'm true to you, you know, Eunice." This was the sort of remark that Eunice expected, and that one almost had to make to her, just as one has to say, "Why, you don't look a bit sick," to an invalid.
"Prevaricatah!" Eunice cried, but she was pleased. "Then see that you prove it by comin' ovah heah often this yeah—oftenah than you did last. I want to make Brad jealous, to pay him back for givin' me such a perfectly mise'able summah."
She talked on about the miserable summer, with little thrusts at Brad strung along her monologue like barbs on a wire. Jock hated her for it. He saw that Brad maintained an unruffled, even a smiling, composure, as he invariably did under such attacks. "How can he?" he thought fiercely for the thousandth time. "I'd choke her!"
As soon as he could he took his departure. They
